Before the dawn of medieval Europe`s Renaissance, the city of Cairo under the Mamluks had become the centre of a powerful empire. The reign of the Mamluk Sultans (1250-1517), descendants of Turkic and Circassian slaves captured by the Ottomans, marked a breath-taking flowering of Islamic art and architecture. Described by the great Arab historian Iban Khadun as `the centre of the universe and the garden of the world`, Mamluk Cairo fascinated travellers from East and West alike - whether Christian Jewish or Muslim.